History :

Sycamore Ridge began as a dream in the heart of Darrel Schick in the early í90ís. The dream continued to grow and to be passed along until two other families joined Darrel and his wife Ruth in planning to start a new church. These three families, after much prayer and thought, made a decision in October of 1996 to go forward. Planning and groundwork continued for the new church until the spring of 1997, when the group began to search for a pastor.
After an extensive search, Bill Craig was called as the first pastor of Sycamore Ridge in August of 1997. Plans were made shortly afterward to begin services in the spring of 1998. Our first service was on Palm Sunday, April 5th, 1998 at the Brookville High School with 101 in attendance.

In September of 1998 Pastor Bill discovered an empty warehouse building at 125 Carr Drive at the edge of the industrial park. After cosmetic renovations were completed, the church moved into the building in November of 1998, and immediately began to grow. Bill and Jill Craig then felt called in December of 1999 to leave and begin a new church plant in Maryland, their native state. The church was running about 90 people in 2 Sunday services.

After Bill left, a pastor search team was formed to find a new pastor. The team began praying about Godís man for the church as Darrel Schick took over leading the church both in the speaking duties and as the lead lay person, providing guidance and continued direction. In May of 2000, it became evident that the pastor we were looking for was the person who was already leading us. With attendance now running 130 in two services, the church voted unanimously to call Darrel Schick as Pastor. Darrel was ordained by the church and then started immediately as our Pastor in a bivocational role. Darrel continued working full-time in radio until January of 2005 when he became full-time pastor at the Ridge.

As Sycamore Ridge grew, it became evident that we were outgrowing the 4,000 square foot area it occupied in the Carr Drive location. As our efforts were exhausted in trying to purchase the entire building on Carr we began to pray about other building options. In August 2004 the church voted to buy 23 acres of land along Interstate 70 on Brookville-Phillipsburg Road. Through the invaluable assistance of construction missionaries from ìBuilders for Christî we completed ìphase oneî of a six phase building plan and moved in during the fall of 2005. We look forward to the future with great excitement and anticipation as we join God in our spiritual journey.